On Tuesday, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement on joint border patrols and information exchanges.

Under Pena Nieto's predecessor, Felipe Calderon, gang violence surged throughout Mexico leaving 70,000 people dead by the time Calderon left office in December, while a powerful new cartel, the Knights Templar, emerged in Michoacan.

On Tuesday at least 22 people were killed in clashes in the western state as federal authorities square off in clashes with suspected members of teh Knights Templars organized crime ring.

Security forces in a Mexican state plagued by drug violence were working to restore order on Wednesday.

The clashes in the troubled Tierra Calienta region were the worst since the army and federal police launched a joint operation in May to protect the local population from the notorious Knights Templar cartel.

Pena Nieto has said his strategy will be different than his predecessor's, with a single command, close coordination between various authorities, greater use of intelligence assets, and an economic development program.

He has also since launched a crime prevention program, but he says military troops deployed by Calderon will stay on the ground until the murder rate declines.

Fed up with crime, vigilantes have appeared in recent months and clashed with the Knights Templar cartel, notably in Tierra Caliente.

Drug gangs have existed for decades in Michoacan, where they grow marijuana and opium poppies and produce synthetic drugs in makeshift labs before shipping them to the United States.